Personal Injury Law

Judge Sues Police for Using Pepper Spray During His DUI Arrest

By Michael

A northern Illinois judge facing a drunken driving charge has recently filed a personal injury lawsuit against a suburb?s police department, accusing the police of mistreating him during the arrest.

Judge David Hall has claimed in a federal lawsuit that police officers used excessive force during the traffic stop and subsequent arrest. Hall alleges that rolling up his car window as officers approached was not a just cause for using pepper spray against him, according to the Chicago Sun Times.

Within the suit Hall argues further that he ?posed no threat to anyone during his interactions? with Vernon Hills officers who pulled him over on April 26, 2008, within the Chicago suburb north of the city.

Hall?s injury lawsuit targets two Vernon Hills police officers, one of whom reportedly died from a heart attack about six weeks after the arrest. Hill said within the lawsuit that the pepper spray resulted in injuries that required medical attention.

Officers with Vernon Hills Police defended the actions of the two policemen named in the injury lawsuit, and said they acted properly, following all necessary procedures during the arrest.

?I?m very surprised, and confused, that this allegation (of excessive force) has taken this long to come out,? Vernon Hills Deputy Police Chief William Price said of the lawsuit. ?In two years, we never heard a complaint from Mr. Hall or his attorney. … It was a routine traffic stop based on one or two driving violations, and they suspected the driver was impaired.?

Price further described the amount of pepper spray used by the officers was at a minimum, according to the Chicago Tribune. Officer Jerry Goldsmith, who passed away after the arrest, sprayed toward the judge when he started rolling up his window during the arrest.

The lawsuit was filed on April 26 in the U.S. District Court in Chicago, according to the Sun Times. Hall?s lawsuit does not specify an amount of money he wishes to receive in damages from the Village of Vernon Hills as well as Goldsmith?s estate. The second officer is also being targeted for damages related to police brutality.

Hall is still awaiting trial for his DUI arrest and resisting arrest charges placed against him as a result of the 2008 traffic stop. While his blood-alcohol content was found to be past the legal limit, a Kane County judge ruled procedure was not followed properly during the blood testing, and that information is now being held from jurors.

Hall, who at the time of the arrest was chief judge in Lake County, has since stepped down from the position, but continues to work as a judge in the Lake County Circuit Court.

Full post as published by The Injury Blog on May 04, 2010 (boomark / email).